Non-Recombined Plasma Influence on the Neutron Pulse of the Gas-Filled Neutron Tube

Abstract

This article considers modeling of the gas-filled neutron tube's ion source with discharge initiated by the non-recombined plasma from the previous pulse. The simulation was carried out with a homogeneous distribution of the non-recombined plasma with a concentration of 5.108 cm−3. In the case of filling the neutron tube volume by atomic hydrogen with pressure of 10-3 Torr, the slew rate of the extracted atomic hydrogen ion current equals only 10 mkA/mks. For increasing this value gas mixture of atomic hydrogen and xenon at a pressure of 0.5.10−3 Torr or molecular hydrogen at a pressure of 10−3 Torr to the atomic hydrogen were utilized. This led to increasing of the slew rate of the extracted atomic hydrogen ion current to 100 mkA/mks with xenon and 20 mkA/mks with molecular hydrogen.